To this end was I born,
and for this cause came I into the world,
That I should bear witness unto the Truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
— KJV; John 18:37
And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary,
There they crucified Him,
and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
— Luke 23:33-34
The greatest prayer of intercession in history…
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The Journey So Far
In the first three essays in these series we have established that inter alia:
- Christ wanted us to focus on The Word and not on Him. He rejected the very same personality cult that we have built around Him, which most people equate with “Christianity”;
- Our personality-cult mindset has led to complete misinterpretation of The Word (including the Parable of the Tenants, which is very relevant in this context) and the Crucifixion;
- Word-oriented thinking always leads to more wholesome, clear, and simple conclusions than personality-cult thinking.
How do we defend the dogma that Christ came to Earth to be sacrificed in light of the Parable of the Tenants (ref. “‘Lifted Up’ Is Not ‘Crucified’“) and this mighty prayer of intercession?
Apologia…
Some popular justifications include:
- The prayer was part of the plan. The prayer was necessary to open the path of forgiveness to the direct perpetrators of the crime in particular.
- In other words, the act came about because of a few “bad apples”, and not because of man’s self-willed faulty nature (ref. “Fall Down and Worship Me!“) which we are all guilty of, and which has created a world in which good is rejected and persecuted, even more so today than during Christ’s time. The rest of us are innocent.
- He was interceding not against the act per se, but against the hate and ignorance that drove men to commit the act. God can will that the crucifixion occurs, while simultaneously condemning the injustice and malice that produced it.
- In other words, the Almighty Father sometimes requires human hate and ignorance to achieve His purposes. In other words, He needs evil (Lucifer’s help?) sometimes.
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An Imperfect Creator?
These and other similar justifications demonstrate a meagre view of the Almighty Creator:
He wants a good thing (salvation) to happen. But He needs a bad thing, something He Himself has outlawed (a murder) to happen for His plan to succeed. As an outcome of the bad thing happening He will punish the very human beings He needed for the job. So His Son, who was part of the Plan all along, has to intercede at the last minute on behalf of those who were long ago predestined to be tools of the fulfillment…
The Creator is Perfect, and perfection is always clear, simple, beautiful, and logical (ref. “God’s Perfection, Pt 1”). These dogmatic apologia are clumsy and degrading. That is why intellectual gymnastics, and the misuse of the word “faith”, are required to defend them.
The misunderstanding of what Christ meant by “faith” was critical to the spread of this wrong mindset (ref. “Suffering Is Not God-Willed”, “Faith Is A Halfway House”).
Our spiritual laziness makes uttering flattering words and following religious rituals in the name of a so-called faith (ref. “False Faiths, Pt 1”) more attractive than grappling honestly “in real life” with The Word and following the tough path of self improvement Christ demanded.
Human Wishes vs Eternal Reality
In the same way that our views and assumptions about other people are influenced by our own nature (ref. “How To Know Thyself“), the picture of the Creator painted by this belief indicates only what we want Him to be, not His actual Nature.
We want an all-forgiving Creator, so that we can avoid the effort of self improvement. We ignore all the evidence that this makes no sense (ref. “Is His Love Blind?“, “The Unforgiven“).
We want a Creator who values us so highly that He sends His Son to be murdered (“sacrificed”) for us, so that an act (of barbarism) that requires no self-improvement on our own part will magically reconcile us to Him.
Reformation is the eternal, living, and only road to forgiveness. It arises out of real faith and is open to anyone who lives The Word (ref. “The Word Is The Bread of Life”).
Today’s Resolution:
- We pray for the courage to look critically at our beliefs, and the strength to cast off any that dishonour the Almighty or The Word.
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